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Table 2 Comparison of antibiotic therapy for CAL and HAL.

From: Clinical features and predictors of mortality in admitted patients with community- and hospital-acquired legionellosis: A Danish historical cohort study

  CAL HALa  
Variables No. (%) of episodes No. (%) of episodes p-valueb
Initial antibiotic therapy    
Use of an anti-legionella antibioticc 34 (12.5) 5 (8.3) 0.38
Use of >1 antibiotic (± anti-legionella antibiotics) 54 (19.9) 20 (33.3) 0.14
Penicillin monotherapy 144 (52.9) 16 (26.7) <0.001*
Anti-legionella antibiotic treatment    
Anti-legionella antibiotic ≤ 24 hoursd 48 (17.6) 6 (10.0) x
Anti-legionella antibiotic > 24 hoursd 201 (73.9) 42 (70.0) x
No anti-legionella antibiotic during admission 18 (6.6) 7 (11.7) 0.24
Delay of anti-legionella therapy (median and IQR)    
Days from admission 2 (1-4) X x
Days from symptom onset 7 (5-11) 7 (3-12) 0.29
Duration of anti-legionella therapy (median and IQR)    
Died in hospital 7 (2-13) 6 (2-13) 0.79
Discharged alive 21 (14-23) 20 (13-27) 0.65
Antibiotics used during admission    
Macrolide monotherapye 87 (32.0) 18 (30.0) 0.97
Fluoroquinolone monotherapyf 4 (1.5) 3 (5.0) 0.07
Macrolide + Rifampicin 39 (14.3) 5 (8.3) 0.26
Fluoroquinolone + Rifampicin 11 (4.0) 3 (5.0) 0.67
Macrolide + Fluoroquinolone 44 (16.2) 9 (15.0) 0.95
Macrolide + Fluoroquinolone + Rifampicin 67 (24.6) 15 (25.0) 0.77
No anti-legionella therapy 18 (6.6) 7 (11.7) 0.18
Oral anti-legionella therapy only    
Yesg 22 (8.1) 3 (5.0) 0.40
No 247 (90.8) 57 (95.0) 0.40
  1. a A case was defined as hospital-acquired if the patient had been admitted within the preceding 10 days or if the patient developed
  2. symptoms of legionellosis more than 2 days after hospital admission.
  3. b Differences between the groups were analyzed with χ2 or Fisher's exact test as appropriate for categorical variables.
  4. Continuous variables were compared using two-sample t-test (normal distribution) or Mann-Whitney U-test (non-normal distribution).
  5. c Anti-legionella antibiotics include macrolides, quinolones, rifampicin and tetracyclines.
  6. d For community-acquired cases time from admission. For hospital-acquired cases time from beginning of symptoms.
  7. No comparison between groups for these variables since baseline was defined in different ways.
  8. e The macrolides were either erythromycin, clarithromycin, roxithromycin or azithromycin
  9. with the most commonly used being intravenous erythromycin
  10. f Primarily intravenous ciprofloxacin
  11. g Most commonly used anti-legionella drug adminstered orally was roxithromycin
  12. * P-level < 0.05 is considered statistically significant.
  13. IQR: Interquartile range
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BMC Infectious Diseases

ISSN: 1471-2334

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